Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1887-04-27
Musical Column.
PROF. 9. NJ. WHITE, Editor.

Sweet melody was once the rage,
But not in this enlightened age,
For harmony now reigns alone,
And melody afar has flown.
Themes that abound with charming grace,
Are now considered common place,
While those that are profoundly dense,
Must be admired, they're so intense.
The editor Of this column will give
an organ recital at Trinity church
the second week in May.
1t is a significant fact that a large
share of the editorial space in the
leading English music journals is reg.
ularly devoted to the discussion Of
American affairs.
What about the minstrel entertain
ment promised some time agof
King Do do reigns in the realms Of Sound,
And strong bold king Is he,
His sons and his vassels encircle him round,
And serve him right reverently.
An autocrat sure is King Do do,
Who enters his realm dare say him no;
Who sights him. negleots or ignores him woe,
From his capital Tune elected will go.
A correspondent wants to know il
the man who made the treble" joke,
that he wanted an "alto"-ration in
the "tenor" of such "bass" -remarks
was a "clef"-er man. We leave our
readers to judge.-Standard.
We would like very much to have
Prof. G. G. Case, or Carl Zeraahn
hold a musical convention in our city,
sometime during the summer months.
Many players when before an audi
ence, appear like men setting off fire.
works. They make big show, often
a great deal of noise, and when they
have finished their task there is much
ugly smoke, while the darkness APP
pears all the greater.
The reception given by the Alpena
Musical Society, last week, was a
grand success.
AS we look upon the rapid and gen.
eral spread Of intellectual and educa-
tional development, that is permeating
in the length and breadth of Ameri-
ca to-day, it is gratifying to behold
healthy growth of interest on the part
of the better classes, in behalf of the
training of children's voices in the
public schools.
The Alpena Either club are to give
concert next week.
There is to be new musical or
ganization formed in our city to be
known as the Knights of Pythias
band.
Choirs as well as orchestras should
profit by the hint intended to be
given by Schuman when he said: eff
all should insist on playing the first
violin there would be no orchestra"
Each part and each player is import
ant TO the whole and should be re-
spected each in his place.
A composer of eminence being told
that his music was somewhat trashy,
and that he had better turn over
new leaf, at once wrote: "When the
Leaves Begin to Turn
Look around you and notice that
good schools and teachers are always
on the alert for the new and the good.
Only your slow coaches /; your Rip
Van Wrinkle teachers are satisfied
with the old track. 81 have used
such a book for twenty years, and l
am not going to change now," says one.
Why not? What answered our pur-
poses twenty years ago will hardly
answer them now.
1t is not an uncommon thing to
meet with graduate in music. We
have even heard of schools where one
might secure complete musical edu-
cation within short space of time,
say two or three years. But do the
schools that promise to graduate pu-
pills within certain space of time, in
clude knowledge of harmony, coun-
terpoint and composition? All of
these things are necessary to COM
plete musical education. To sing, and
play the piano well, are only primary
requirements.
We need not fear of being too COM
PLEASANT to the critics. The way to win |
is to appear to adopt their plans, fiat
ter their foibles, and swallow their